What caught his interest
by hirochiro
Summary: Kuroo's intention didn't work out the same as the result. This number twelve from Karasuno messed up with his feelings. Even he had to face against his overprotective best friend.


**A/N: I fall deeper for this ship.**

 **Warning: it's a super rare pairing (again). Yamaguchi is a total sweetheart (and I love him). Tsukishima is fighting his own inner self. Kuroo is a trashy-but-hella-attractive type of senpai here because trashy Kuroo is awesome. Maybe OOC, Un-betaed**

 **Please beware for the grammar errors and feel free to tell me the mistakes!**

 **Haikyuu! belongs to Haruichi Furudate**

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* * *

His block was terrible.

He was too stiff. No wonder he looked so thin although his height had reached 179 centimeters or so. He got nervous so easily, easily confused and couldn't predict the precise time when to jump or analyzed if it was feint or not.

His receive was much more terrible. Kuroo almost wanted to snicker at the first year's clumsiness. Call him arrogant etcetera, but seeing the poor little first year like that just made Kuroo's senpai instinct moved. It was almost as if he was watching an amusing entertainment. Though on the other hand, he actually hoped some high expectation from the mentioned boy.

He was interested with his serve. That deadly serve was pretty good, although it still need some works to be able called perfect. If only he could balance it with good blocking and strong receive just like the captain of Karasuno had, he would totally caught Kuroo's interest.

So there he was. Started walking as his 'kind-and-caring-type-senpai-instinct' was calling him towards the rather tall figure that was practicing with Akaashi, Bokuto and some of the members from Fukurodani, before he tapped his own hand on the Karasuno's number twelve's shoulder, only made him startled by the sudden action.

'What a clumsy kid.' Kuroo thought while smirking, but half of him found it was cute.

"Your hands are too stiff. You won't be able to block like this."

"K-Kuroo-san?!"

Kuroo took the ball from the boy's hand before bounced it to the ground twice and playing with it for a moment, "What's your position?"

The dark haired younger boy stuttered, unable to look at Kuroo's eyes. If he saw him this close, Kuroo would noticed that the boy actually had freckles. There was nothing interesting from him. Just a plain, scaredy-cat boy who would took a while to warm up with someone.

"My p-position is.. M-Middle Blocker and pinch server.. "

What a coincidence. Kuroo just smirked at the recognition, feeling his ego began to pile up. It would be easier for him to make a riveting impression.

 _What a show off._

"What's your name?"

"Y-Yamaguchi Tadashi."

"Now, Yamaguchi, care to join me practicing our block?"

The freckled widen his eyes, seems couldn't believe what he had just heard. Of course he wouldn't. Today, he was the one who took the initiative to ask Akaashi and Bokuto to help him (resulting Konoha, Washio and Sarukui to join) and before he did that, he had to muster up his courage. With all strength he got, fighting his own insecurity just for asking the two Fukurodani's upperclassmen. But the captain of Nekoma was the one asking him? _Was it his popularity day?_

Kuroo let out a snicker from the younger teen's reaction. He almost wanted to ruffle his head. Unlike Tsukishima, this Yamaguchi guy was very honest. His gesture spoke louder than his lips. It was like he prevented any words that would slipped out unnecessarily.

"Bokuto, let me in. I'll pair up with Yamaguchi."

The owl resembled captain raised his eyebrows, tilted his head with his typical bright smile, "Are you sure?"

"I don't intend to win the match. I just want to teach him proper block technique."

Yes, Kuroo just wanted to teach the younger teen. They were rivals, yes. But even so, Kuroo wanted to show how 'kind' he was because Kuroo was indeed mischievous. No way would he miss the chance to impress the cute underclassman before their leave.

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"Alright Yamaguchi—" Kuroo said, glancing to the other side of the net, successfully caught the interest from the younger teen. His voices were low, but held many cautious, "—listen carefully. Bokuto's spike is powerful, and it might end up hurting you if you haven't used to it."

Yamaguchi nodded, comprehending every word Kuroo had said. Although Yamaguchi actually had predicted that Bokuto's spike was intense, he never knew until now that the owl's resembled captain's spike was _very terrifying._

"Pay attention to where the ball will most likely move. In the real match, if the ball has received by Akaashi, he usually tosses it to Bokuto." Kuroo's eyes turned its attention to Akaashi, seemingly rather wary towards the Fukurodani's vice captain.

Kuroo then began to raise his hand in front of his face, spreading his fingers. "Spread your fingers wide. By spreading them wide you cover more area."

Yamaguchi nodded again, started to follow the older demonstration. And Kuroo couldn't help but _smiled_ at this. His reaction was too delicate and somewhat timid. Yamaguchi's reaction was very interesting and showed that Yamaguchi tended to be obedient. Submissive even.

Luckily the freckled seemed didn't really pay attention until his smile faltered, or else he would freaked Yamaguchi out. He then gained his cool again, while reaching near the younger's dark hair, but didn't touch them, "Since you're pretty tall, stay little bit further from the net. It will help you to push your arms further into the other side of the net."

Kuroo started to walk away from his early place before stopped near the net, "If you stay too close from the net, it will make you difficult to penetrate the ball to the other side and the risk of netting also becomes greater."

He then stepped back a little far from the net, "Also, don't outstretch your hand too straight. Instead, raise them a little bit forward so the penetration becomes more effective. Remember, blocking is not about how high you jump."

Yamaguchi then nodded, this time his heart filled with a little confidence before muttering, "Thank you, I'll try my best!" with a timid yet earnest smile.

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One thump inside Kuroo's heart. Nevertheless he decided to ignore them.

However, was it wrong for him to look forward of seeing that smile again?

* * *

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If Tsukishima was asked whether he was okay or not and you got "I'm fine" as the answer, that was a big lie. Except for Hinata and Kageyama who received a vexing glare from the tall blonde, along with endless irritated grunt for Hinata instead of the answer.

He might stand there emotionless, but his lungs had exhaled a long sigh frequently, while his mind was wondering where the heck was Yamaguchi. The freckled never left him alone for too long without trace or report, let alone leaving him in this training camp. He wasn't the type who would distance himself from Tsukishima considering he was the one who glued himself to Tsukishima.

He had tried many attempts to search his freckled friend without getting noticed by the team or else he had to swallow his own pride. (But this thing wasn't left unnoticed by two persons from the third year who secretly known Tsukishima's restlessness)

Firstly, he had checked their camp, found nothing but their bags and futons lied in a row. Somehow he could get passed the people who were asking him what he was doing with many great ostensibly of Tsukishima Kei. Secondly, and the most diligent attempt he had done was he walked around the first floor corridor, even backyard garden. Thirdly— even he himself actually was against it— he asked the Fukurodani's and Nekoma's members he had seen, leading him almost being pestered about looking for his dear walking star.

"Where the hell is he?" Tsukishima was mumbling and feeling pissed off at his futile attempts. He even left the extra training Karasuno members had held. Actually, he looked forward to it, but it felt different without Yamaguchi (It wasn't like he would admit it) since what had kept him motivated had always been Yamaguchi from the start.

' _All begins with his yelling that night'_

His mind began to recalled what had his best friend done to him, reminiscing the moment. If Yamaguchi hadn't chased him, probably they wouldn't have won the match against Shiratorizawa. Probably he wouldn't have been able to block the deadly smash from Ushijima. He wouldn't have had stood here now with pride.

Without Tsukishima realizing it, his lips formed a small smile on its own, smiling at how cool Yamaguchi was. Call him crazy, but that side of Yamaguchi left an impression of how sweet and cute his hardworking self. How Tsukishima actually wanted to catch the freckled and squished him to death, while saying 'Thank you, Tadashi. You do realize that you are cooler than me but I just can't admit them—'

Damn.

And immediately he snapped himself from the thought of wanting to hold tight his best friend, "God, I must be crazy. Yamaguchi is not like—"

"Nice block, Yamaguchi!"

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Wait.

 _What._

 _What the heck?_

"Thank you, Kuroo- _san!_ "

Wait a minute.

Was that Yamaguchi's name he had just heard? And did he hear Kuroo? The scheming captain from Nekoma?

Curiosity began to creep over him as he walked closer to the sound. Each step provoked his brain, inflicting his mind was pretty much a mess. So many questions left unanswered. More like couldn't be answered.

Why did Yamaguchi want to hang out with someone like Kuroo? Since when? And what kind of business he had with Yamaguchi?

Once he arrived at the front door of gymnasium, he peeked inside, trying not to get caught by them especially by the black haired third year from Nekoma and the guy with ridiculous eyebrows from Fukurodani along with his 'hey hey hey'. His framed eyes scanned through the wide gymnasium. There, he saw Bokuto, Akaashi, Kuroo, Yamaguchi and few members from Fukurodani. He assumed that they were practicing and had played on the practice match for quite a long time. They were sweating, exhaling and inhaling their breathing in almost erratic pace.

"Hey hey hey! Yamaguchi, wasn't it? You're a fast learner! That block was pretty amazing!" Tsukishima rolled his eyes towards the typical and loud 'hey hey hey' voice, then found Bokuto raised his two hands to the air. He didn't understand what kind of gesture was that for.

He then rolled his eyes again, this time towards Yamaguchi who was awkwardly playing his fingers and lowered his head to hide the pink shade that dusted around his cheeks. For a moment Tsukishima could felt his own face getting warmer, while setting his glasses to the right place in a nervous motion.

' _What's with that reaction?!'_ Tsukishima screamed inside his head. Yamaguchi's redden face was pretty cute—

"Th-Thank you.. Bokuto- _san.._ " he heard Yamaguchi said softly. Shy smile for the bonus.

-scratch that, it was unbelievably cute and kind of unfair. How dare them to see that smile while Tsukishima just saw them from afar. They could saw it closer and Tsukishima had to imagine it by himself. Tsukishima narrowed his eyes, snorted in annoyed tone.

(Once again, it's not that he wanted to admit it out loud that he was.. okay, he was actually jealous.)

Kuroo began throwing his hand around the younger dark haired boy's shoulder, earning a yelp from the boy, and earning a hiss from the blonde, "You're better than I expected. Let's try another match, shall we?"

"Okay, Kuroo- _san!_ "

' _Well, good for them'_ , Tsukishima thought, gained some positive assumption that they were just practicing together. It was necessary for Yamaguchi to practice with someone stronger than him, right? _There's nothing between them._

And yet, Tsukishima just couldn't get away from them. He couldn't left Yamaguchi alone and gave him to the suspicious older man. Yamaguchi was too pure; he wouldn't let anyone harm him and he swore to it since the first time they met.

"Yamaguchi, are you okay?!"

Suddenly, a rather loud shout (Tsukishima assumed it was from Kuroo) made him turned his head furiously. Although he managed himself to keep calm and not get distracted easily to the point rushed in, his eyes were flashing a worried glint. Worried to what might happen to his friend, but found something in his disbelief.

* * *

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Bokuto's team which consisted of Washio and Akaashi were in the lead. They played cohesively with just a small error, mostly caused by Bokuto. Akaashi mostly tossed and Bokuto was the one who spiked it hard, leaving neither Kuroo, Konoha or Yamaguchi a chance to block the ball perfectly. It was always ended up with one touch or even a score. Moreover, there was Washio who blocked the ball with his insanely high height.

Kuroo learned that despite his appearance, Yamaguchi wasn't the type who was rather easy to get distracted or wobbly. Sure, Yamaguchi blamed himself often if he wasn't able to block the ball. However, sometime Kuroo would caught a glint of seriousness filled the younger's dark eyes. It was tender, yet held a solemn look flickering in his eyes. He was hard-working, as he could see that Yamaguchi would try to keep up to Konoha and him, balancing the rhythm of their play.

Kuroo smirked to himself, slowly getting more and more fascinated towards the number twelve from Karasuno High.

" _One touch!"_ Yamaguchi shouted, triggering Konoha to step exactly where the ball would land.

Konoha then received ball and shouted, "Kuroo- _san!"_ as if it was a sign for Kuroo to spike the ball as hard as he could. When the ball arrived precisely at Kuroo, he then jumped, not too far from the net and smashed it, piercing through to the other side of the net.

Immediately, Kuroo's team gained a score. They screamed in union, "Alright!" with a smile formed to their face. Konoha came near to Yamaguchi to give him a high five, which Yamaguchi granted happily.

"Nice block, first year."

"Th-Thank you! Nice serve!"

Without a warning, Kuroo landed his hand on the brownish hair and ruffled them in an affectionate gesture, "Nice block, Yamaguchi!"

"Thank you, Kuroo- _san!"_ Yamaguchi beamed with his warm smile, and Kuroo saw how the freckles' cheeks turned redder. His angelic laugh was soothing and so soft and honestly Kuroo couldn't get enough with it. The more he saw the younger nervousness, the more Kuroo ruffled his hair with a little too much pressure, attach by the boy.

' _He sure has a very soft and silky hair.'_ amused Kuroo, never had a single intention of letting go of his fingers from the first year's dark lock.

"Hey hey hey! Yamaguchi, wasn't it? You're a fast learner! That block was pretty amazing!" the loud voice made Kuroo forced himself to let go of his fingers from Yamaguchi, silently cursing Bokuto for destroying the moment. Of course Yamaguchi's block was amazing; it was him who taught Yamaguchi after all.

"Th-Thank you.. Bokuto _-san_.."

Now that's a foul. A shy smile was plastered on the freckled, and damn, Kuroo had to hold himself from squishing the angel in front of him. So instead of wrapping his muscled arms to the smaller boy's waist and pulled him closer for a deadly hug, he threw one arm and circled it around his shoulder and said with his typical smirk so his image as cunning yet calm and cool upperclassman wouldn't be ruined; "You're better than I expected. Let's try another match, shall we?"

"Okay, Kuroo- _san_!" Yamaguchi just nodded with enthusiasm.

Then they started again. This time Yamaguchi did the serve. He bounced it twice, planned to do his float jump serve. He then tossed it to the air, jumped and hit the ball. As the ball went through the other side of net, Akaashi began to react. It was fast, but Akaashi also amazed by the nearly perfect jump float serve, as he almost let the ball touched the ground. He immediately tossed it, tried to aim it to Bokuto. Luckily, it did fell exactly on Bokuto.

Bokuto smiled triumphantly, waited for the good momentum to serve.

Yamaguchi realized that it was an alarm. He hurriedly ran near the net. Kuroo seemed to notice it also ran towards the net.

It all felt so slow. From Bokuto who whipped his hand to Kuroo and Yamaguchi's attempts to block his spike. It was like a slow motion when Bokuto smashed his palm to the ball. Kuroo reacted to this as he screamed, "One, two.."

 **BAM**

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A loud bam was heard but Kuroo didn't felt anything at his palm at all. His mind was all blank, but then it clicked with a fast pace. The ball had hit another blocker's palm hard, and Konoha didn't manage to reach it since it was a cross spike. The ball successfully bounced inside just an inch from the out ball territory, causing the other team gained a score.

Yet, it was all quite. No sound from Bokuto's team that supposed to be filled with satisfaction. He could only hear a quite groan as his eyes cast over the other blocker palm.

Yamaguchi's palm was bleeding.

"Yamaguchi, are you okay?!" was all Kuroo could say. He grabbed Yamaguchi's wrist without much pressure and looked at the palm. The skin was torn a bit, caused by the hard spike.

Shortly, he asked Akaashi to give him an unused towel. Akaashi didn't take too long before he came back with a clean towel, then Kuroo pressed the towel on Yamaguchi's wounded palm slowly. As the towel was pressed against the Yamaguchi's palm, he flinched and his breathe would hitch although he still muster up himself to convince the older.

"I'm okay, Kuroo- _san.._ It's not a big deal." Yamaguchi let out another vague and quite groan, along with a reassuring smile he usually had. However Kuroo wasn't pleased by his answer at all.

"You hurt your palm and you still manage to say that it's not a big deal?" he said calmly but held some dejected tone in his voice. He didn't want to hear such answer coming from Yamaguchi when the first year actually didn't feel okay at all.

Kuroo didn't let go of the younger's wrist. He even stepped out of the field, still holding the thin wrist with his hand, "Come on, I'll take you to the infirmary."

"It's okay, it's just a bleeding, Kuroo- _san.._ I'm used to it."

"Stop talking, I'll nurse you there."

Kuroo could feel it, but didn't even glance at the confused face that showed on first year's face. His mind ordered him to treat the younger's hand right now. If he thought back the reason why, probably he would answer it with an unexpected answer. He started to care for him. That he actually and slowly bloomed a feeling of affection towards Yamaguchi. Not solely because he wanted to be thought as a good senpai anymore (Although it was his first intention)

He wanted Yamaguchi to think of him as someone he could rely on. Even though he knew it was a selfish expectation and sounded like he was throwing a tantrum.

"I think that won't be necessary, Kuroo- _san._ "

Before they had a chance to step outside the gym, a tall figure stood not too far from the entrance. His two hands were folding against his chest. Cynical glance was formed onto his framed eyes. His aura wasn't pleasant at all, it was burning in aggravation.

Kuroo didn't seem to mind his don't-you-dare-to-touch-my best friend-glare. He just let out his taunting voice, "Oh, if it's not Tsukki. Would you please move aside? He's bleeding."

Tsukishima shrugged and rolled his eyes boringly. His eyes landed on Yamaguchi and Kuroo could see his gaze became softer just for the boy he held right now. Kuroo felt his eyes nearly twitched at the blonde's gentle gaze to the freckled.

"That's why I said it's not necessary. I'll take him to the infirmary." he heard Tsukishima said again, this time with coercion in his tone.

Not wanting to lose, he revealed his best (wicked) smile and said, "Why, it's my fault, Tsukki so I'm the one who responsible for it."

"Don't call me Tsukki, Kuroo _-san_. It sounded annoying"

"I-I will do it myself, so please stop it!"

They heard the poor little Yamaguchi tried to mediate the two taller men with his trembling voice. His adorable doe eyes snapped shut while his entire legs was shaking nervously— _God it was so cute they just wanted to kidnap him._

"No, let me!" the two said in unison and made Yamaguchi shrieked.

"But really, I can take care of this myself. Stop fighting or my wound—"

"God, you two are hopeless."

Calm and collected voice was heard with a frustration sigh. There the three of them found Akaashi rubbed his temple at how immature the two tall men sometimes. His eyes stared blankly but in swift motion, he pulled Yamaguchi closer to him from Kuroo's grasp, "Just leave this to me. Watching you two could just explode my head in no time."

Akaashi guided Yamaguchi to their destination, leaving the two stood there and watched as Akaashi patted Yamaguchi's back.

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Was it wrong for both Bokuto and Konoha to hold their laughing because of the scene?

* * *

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"Kuroo."

The mentioned name hummed as the response, squinted his eyes to his childhood friend. Kenma was holding his Nintendo as usual without breaking any contact from the screen and said, "You're more quite than usual. It's scary."

"I'm just thinking."

"About the first year from Karasuno? The freckled one?"

Kuroo tensed for a moment, wondered how could his childhood friend knew.

"He's interesting."

"And your face is telling me that you started to like him."

 _Dammit._ The black haired sometimes cursed his friend's sharp analysis and how observant he was. Sometimes it scared the hell outta him.

But Kuroo wouldn't deny it. Now he knew what caught his interest at the number twelve from Karasuno. It wasn't his serve, his block or his receive.

It was his hard working self, adorably clumsy personality and his warm smile.

Kuroo smiled to himself. This time, he felt totally lost from the freckled angel. He never predicted that this would actually happen. From his first intention to show off and impress him turning into a slowly bloomed crush. Honestly he felt stupid but never regretted it.

He made sure that next time, he would totally win his heart.

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 **End.**

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 **God, I love them so much.**

 **Kuroo x Yama is my ultimate rarepair. I'll fly to heaven now.**

 **Thank you for reading! Review or constructive critics are really appreciated!**


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